Thursday, July 24, 2008 Vol 3 No 31 (145)
"True North is for opinion makers"
Mission Statement Archives Contact the Editor

SPECIAL EDITION THREE

Castro On Castro

Please see below

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"News is what (certain) people want to keep hidden. Everything else is just publicity."
PBS journalist Bill Moyers.

Your support makes it possible for True North to clear the fog of "publicity" and keep you informed on what's really happening in the world today. Please send your donation to:

Carl Dow, True North, Station E, P.O. Box 4814, Ottawa ON Canada K1S 5H9.

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All the way to the bank and back

Take care, beware, don't go near that thing on Friday . . . theres a gouger lurking, with a very greedy eye on your hard-earned money.
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Editor’s Notes

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Three Special Editions to satisfy your intellectual craving

This week True North Perspective has published three Special Editions to highlight comment on significant developments that affect us all. This is the third Special Edition.

Fidel Castro On Fidel Castro

Today, Thursday, July 24, 2008, our final Special Edition of the week features a review of a new book entitled My Life (Scribner $40) that provides a unique look at Fidel Castro the man and of the development of modern Cuba from the inside out. The book is distilled from more than a hundred hours of conversations with Le Monde diplomatique editor Ignacio Ramonet, There can be no doubt that Fidel, as he’s popularly known at home and abroad, has transformed the economics and politics of especially Central and South America and in so doing is having a growing impact on these developments in North America — 461 words.
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'...since the revolution's triumph there have been over 3,500 deaths and almost 2,000 disabling injuries from terrorist attacks, most of them sponsored by or launched from the United States, which still funnels tens of millions of dollars a year to Cuban dissidents.'
'Le Monde diplomatique editor Ignacio Ramonet defends his method, saying that he purposefully refused to play the role of judge or prosecutor to let "one of the most implacably attacked figures in the world...have his say."'
'In a final summation, Castro lists his country's accomplishments in education and healthcare, advances in science and medicine, contribution to decolonization and rolling back white supremacy in Africa, ongoing humanitarian internationalism and the audacity of having survived "thousands of acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks organized by the government of the United States. ...”What," he asks, "is Cuba blamed for?"

Fidel Castro on Fidel Castro
(and Cuba past and present)

One of Fidel Castro's earliest political memories is of Spaniards arguing over the Spanish Civil War, and his first act of censorship, he explains in My Life (Scribner, $40), was done in kindness. When asked by his family's illiterate cook — a "fire-breathing Republican" — for news of the war, the nine-year old read him stories that played up loyalist success because he wanted to make him "feel better." Castro's Galician father was a franquista, as were his Jesuit teachers, who prayed for Spain's martyred priests while offering not a word for "the Republicans who were being shot by firing squads." A recent study of Castro's grade school years has him an admirer of fascism, and in My Life, distilled from over a hundred hours of conversations with Le Monde diplomatique editor Ignacio Ramonet, Castro does mention that he collected trading cards commemorating Mussolini's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia. "I became almost an expert on that war in Abyssinia," he says. But Castro remembers this as his first object lesson on modern consumerism: his friends would compete to collect a complete set of cards but "some of them would deliberately never be printed, to make kids buy them, you know. Capitalism." — 4,744 words.
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Did you know?

Homes Quiz – by Mark Kearney and Randy Ray

For many Canadians, their home is their castle. It’s where they spend the greatest portion of their time relaxing with friends and family, entertaining, tackling odd jobs, or sleeping. They also spend a large chunk of their income on mortgage payments, property taxes, repairs and upgrades.

But how much do Canadians know about the homes they live in or are planning to buy? As you tour open houses in search of your dream home this spring, or plan renovations at your existing abode, we invite you to test your knowledge of housing with our trivia quiz.. We’ll pose one question each issue here. You can find the answer at the bottom of the page. Good luck

Which came first, the Robertson screw or the Phillips screw?

Randy Ray of Ottawa and Mark Kearney of London, Ont. are the authors of seven books, including Pucks, Pablum & Pingos, a Canadian trivia book, published in April. Visit their Web site at: www.triviaguys.com
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New web site may be path to success
for authors, publishers, and companies

Prolific best-selling Ottawa author and publicist Randy Ray has developed a new Web site to promote his publicity services, which he offers to authors, publishers and companies. Mr. Ray has helped many clients get their message out across Canada on CTV, CBC Radio, CH-TV, A-Channel and Global TV, and in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, Halifax Herald and many Ottawa-area weekly newspapers. Mr. Ray's web site is: www.randyray.ca. He can be contacted at: (613) 731-3873 or rocket@intranet.ca.

Link not working? Story not loading? Can't click on the links? Got another computer problem? Never fear! Carl is here!

If you have any problems with accessing the newsletter or problems with your computer, send an email to Carl Hall chall2k5@gmail.com , and he will be more than happy to assist you.
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Answer to Homes Quiz Did You Know?

The Robertson screw, developed by Peter Lymburner Robertson of Milton, Ont., in 1908. Phillips’ screws didn’t come onto the marketplace until the 1930s, the brainchild of Henry F. Phillips, a businessman from Portland, Oregon.
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Archives
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Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher
Geoffrey Dow, Managing Editor
Yvette Pigeon, Associate Editor
Mike Heenan, Literary Editor
Benoit Jolicoeur, Art Director
Ian Covey, Director of Photography
Carl Hall, Technical Analyst and Web Editor
Contributing Editors
Rosaleen Dickson
Tom Dow
Randy Ray
Harold Wright
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